Seeking player feedback on more intuitive menu options

We realize the existing menu on the home page is not all that intuitive and we're seeking to improve it. We're trying to figure out what kind of branching makes sense. This would be a step towards improving the home page's UI in the near future.

Below are the current menu divisions:

Home: just the homepageNewsfeed: takes you to the newsfeedCommunity: - Players: lets you search for players - Wiki: takes you to the player-maintained wiki - Forums: takes you to these forums - Strategy Guides: A 2013 collection of strategy guides (that may have been updated at some point?) - Code of Conduct: The code of conduct page - Make a Donation: A page where you can donate (without a menu sidebar)Resources: - Profile: current profile - Challenges: The "challenge" puzzles posted by devs, which I don't think have been added to in quite a long while - Player Puzzles: Player puzzles, where you can search; also, this is where you can find the create puzzle, create 2-state switch, and create 3-state switches - Lab Archive: A long list of previous lab projects - Data Browser: Takes you to the data browserAbout: the about page

Of course, the current labs are not in the menu but in the main frame on the home page.

The problem is that names like "Community" and "Resources" don't adequately describe where these branches will take you. Entering the puzzle maker, which is something that people do pretty frequently, requires going through resources to player puzzles to finding a button below the search (or alternatively scrolling down on the home page to create a puzzle, but this won't get you 2-state and 3-state puzzles).

For example, here is one proposed branching that captures some, but not all of the above activity:

This leaves a handful of things out: - The newsfeed and player profile, which seem related - The code of conduct, the donation page, and searching for players is also left out.

So here are my questions:1) Any other suggestions for branching?2) How to fit in remaining menu items in the proposed branching?3) Should there be a different menu structure for incoming players (more relevant to them) and for more experienced players (those doing a lot of lab stuff or a lot of puzzle creation)?

Right now we're trying to improve the menu, but in the next version of Eterna it may be possible to make the site a little more adaptive to the user (feature puzzles you're currently working on on your home page, for example or labs you're examining).

Sorting of Challenge and Player puzzles will need some work.A number of Challenge and Player Puzzles would support a progression puzzle test.The process would be a loop.At certain progression levels, lab access might be unlocked for a player.

Challenges does not make me think it would contain puzzles so I added to the name.

I don't quite grasp your meaning on sorting challenge and player puzzles and the loop.

I think the division between "challenge puzzles" and "player-created puzzles" is a bit of a legacy holdover. There is a difference between them but not sure if the distinction is worth the cost of having these multiple categories. The initial menu change will likely keep these divisions though, as that's how the site is still set up.

I got off topic on puzzles. In a reorganized site, I could imagine selected puzzles that would have plenty of practice puzzles. A progression puzzle(s) would use those practice puzzles to get the player ready for the progression puzzle. At the advancement to the next progression, some access to other puzzles would be opened.It had nothing to do with your questions, I just drifted off :)

puzzles "ÿ - Challenges: The ""challenge"" puzzles posted by devs, which I don't think have been added to in quite a long while" "ÿ - Player Puzzles: Player puzzles, where you can search; also, this is where you can find the create - puzzle, create 2-state switch, and create 3-state switches"- might roll Jinicol's excell spreadsheet into new category- scripting

Eternacon? -> don’t think there is a page yet, but we could plan to create one in the future

About

Overview

User Agreement

Code of Conduct

Donations

Site Map? -> doesn’t exist yet, as far as I know, but maybe create it?

I'm going to talk to Sharif (our designer) to get his impressions, too. Then we'll implement and see how it goes. We could keep a "Home" in the menu or perhaps have another way of going home (I sometimes click on the top Eterna banner to go "home", but get redirected to the lab).

Thanks for catching the scripts. Perhaps I would put that in learning resources, but it's not the best fit.

Re: home page - yep, makes sense.

Yes, in the future I would like to see more customizability. So that a user could, say, have links to the puzzles/labs they're working on or interested in so that they don't have to go through the navigation time and again. Another simple feature that would be nice is a formalization of puzzle series, so that players can create a series out of the puzzles they make and other players can walk through the series without going to individual profiles or searching for keywords in the player puzzle section. Then you could put that series as a link on your homepage and return to where you left off. But these changes will have to wait until the next major website update (which should still be soonish - within the next year I imagine - but not right away). Menu change is quick and easy, which is why Sharif and I brought it up.

Since it looks like I may be one of the parties on the hook for this change, please give me
a few days to digest what you have ( which is an excellent start) and
reply with a second proposal using the above as a starting point.

Hi Zama,Can you clarify what you mean by Tutorial Puzzles? What link would it go to? Or are you suggesting a new page that reflects something like Eli's collection of tutorial and teaching puzzles?Thanks,Ben

Hi JR,Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I like the headings and may reorder them (by putting "Introduction" right after "Home", for example). This approach hides all of the division between developer- and player-created puzzles, which I would like to simplify as well. Although it still means having to navigate through the Player Puzzles page in order to create a puzzle. I'd like to front puzzle creation more, if possible.At this point I'm going to table discussion about these issues (as I think we have a lot of good ideas), get Sharif's take, and incorporate your divisions into our earlier iteration (by, for example, getting rid of the developer-created, player-created menu in the beginning and adopting your headings).

No one else has chimed in about getting rid of "my recent projects", but I will run it by Nando, Omei, and LFP6 to see what their take is. Some of the other changes might wait for a more extensive update.Thanks so much for the input and discussion, JR.Best,Ben

To clarify, I would like to switch "my recent projects" ( which are labs) with a new page that would be a clone of "player puzzles" so you have all labs and lab resources on one page. The "players puzzles" page is a very functional page that I would like to take advantage of. Instead of a player puzzle, the list would be labs

Ben, you also had some broader thoughts on the layout including mockup of homepage for advanced players -- perhaps this is a good thread to post that? I bet JR, Zama, whbob would have useful thoughts -- or alternatives.

Here's the link
to the mockups - it reflects some of the ideas I mentioned above, but
includes some new features (like letting people create and work on
puzzle series instead of just searching, finding them and then going
back, finding the next one...). The idea was to give players more
control over what they see, so that a player can select something
they're working on to see on their homepage.

FYI:Since this thread has taken on bigger subjects than just the menus and since both players and devs have ideas about changing the website generally, the dev plan is to do a website update in August. So everyone who's following this, chime in with your ideas! Take a look at our links above, or make your own proposals, as JR, Zama, and whbob have.

Seeing your tab layout made me re-organize my "site Map" above.I think there needs to be an introduction to Eterna at the home page.In my new layout, the bold headings are meant to be tabs on the home page. The lists under the bold headings could be tabs in the sub-headings.

Thanks Zama,The player created puzzles have single and switch puzzles. Someone might work out for players to complete a puzzle type group and be brought to a progression "test" area where passing raises them to another level. I did put the puzzle maker twice. Most want it with the puzzles, but I thought duplicating it in "create" would give new players a better chance to find it. I'm trying to think of what a new player might want for categories.For instance, I have not put a search link in anywhere. There must be a good place for one somewhere.The more ideas you have the better. Looking forward to more comments :)